"Gunsmith Cats: Bulletproof" (Anime)

[pkristen]

3 Episode OVA. Originally reviewed April 12, 2001

Summary
Featuring two female bounty hunters unwittingly involving themselves in a guns and political conspiracy.

Review
This another series I’ve heard about for years but never really got around to checking it out. It was only because of its release on DVD that gave me some incentive to spend some viewing time to it.

The challenge of viewing and writing this review is that the anime approaches this series with the built in expectation that you already know who the main characters are, specifically in regard to Rally Vincent and May Hopkins. These characters’ backgrounds are never fleshed out, which normally wouldn’t be that glaring if for the fact that they were unusual characters and references are thrown in conversation that are confusing for new viewers.

Apart from those little glitches, I did enjoy the anime. It’s definitely not ground-breaking in terms of story quality or animation techniques. But the story is enjoyable (with a lot of suspension of disbelief) in combination with a subtle yet stylish visuals, including fun use of viewpoints and “camera” angles. I guess I’m also positively biased to material where there is a diverse collection of women in non-traditional roles.

Lesbian Analysis
Obviously, any time you have a strong female lead character(s), it does raise the potential of lesbian/bisexual orientations. And since this anime has a couple of these characters who are not romantically connected to any man….

Rally Vincent: Bounty hunter and gun store business owner

# As with many charismatic female leads, Rally dresses with a business woman style of ties and skirts. There is also a scene where she has trouble walking in heels, for comic effect. Of course, all this really means is that she’s butch; it doesn’t necessarily mean she’s attracted to women.

# No male romantic connection though many men flirt with her (and despite the encouragement of her friend/business partner May to become more romantically active.)

# Though she’s been flirted with, turns down offers. There’s even a comment that she has a reputation of having a “bullet-proof” heart.

# Reacts to May’s teasing about her lack of a love life with responses equivalent to “Shut Up!”, which doesn’t provide conclusive proof of what her orientation actually is.

# In the dialogue, she makes comments that does cause a little eye-brow raising such as “Even if he is a man, there is no way!” (Japanese) or “If that’s what you get from wearing high heels, then I’m switching to combat boots!” (English) Of course these statements are open to interpretation based on your personal biases. And even though she’s commenting about the unsavoryness of a particular male character, it doesn’t necessarily negate attraction to any other person or gender.

# So is she a lesbian or at least bisexual? Viewing the anime as an independent universe (meaning no input of manga character history), I would label her as inconclusive.

Natasha Radinov: Russian Professional Assassin (your bad girl of the series)

# In terms of fashion and style, a completely butch woman.

# Again, no male romantic connection.

# There is a significant intro scene where her underworld male cohorts (not thinking she speaks their language), make comments in terms of asking what her price is for sex. She ignores them, though it’s clear to the viewer that she understands what they’re saying. Of course, this entire scene would be offensive to any woman regardless of her orientation, so her negative response doesn’t have to stem from lesbianism.

# Her orientation? Inconclusive. No romantic or sexual bells in her actions at all. She’s a psychotic killer and that’s all you need to know.

Minnie May Hopkins: Rally’s Partner and Friend, Energetic Explosives Freak

# Clearly considers men to be romantically important, not only for her but for Rally as well. So no, I don’t get lesbian/bisexual vibes from her. (I just decided to list her because she is Rally’s Partner and Friend, after all.)